Mao only has one chance left. She needs to win TEB with convincing mark. At least close or better than Ando's score, which is reasonable. Then she has to win the national, and she can still do it, even if she pop a jump. Just no splats.

Maybe a little but, she does have 2 Lutzs, 1 loop, Salcow and Toe. Her skating is a little stiff, but all her jumps are clearly good and deserve +GOE. Having 2 real Lutz with no 'e'dge call or < is always a big bonus. Lutz is the highest marke in term of base value this season that will be attempted by ladies. She doesn't have a Flip but the flip value is only 0.2 higher that loop so its almost the same. And she did 5jumping pass after bonus time.

Only her spins/spiral is medicore. But all her jumps are clean so it might affect her non jumps elements and boost up the +GOE a little.

Athough i love Agafanova I m not sure about her technique, but Tuktamisheva, Sotnikova, have very good jumps, maybe Ovcharova as well but i havent seen her this year,and I m fond of Radionova and Lipnitskaya, and dont know why Deeva didnt get any gp, I m pretty sure some of them will be fine in seniors.

I think it was silverlake, our resident GS puberty expert who said there are too many Russian babies for all of them to fall victim.
But you are right - and actually it will be fun to see how Russian Natls turn out. Their Men are a trainwreck but maybe the Russian-Jersey girl Ksenia can defend her title.

Ksenia Makarova is NOT a Russian-Jersey girl. She was born in St. Petersburg Russia and came to the US with her parents when she was very young. They live in Newburgh, NEW YORK, a town in Orange County on the west bank of the Hudson River.

Ksenia Makarova is NOT a Russian-Jersey girl. She was born in St. Petersburg Russia and came to the US with her parents when she was very young. They live in Newburgh, NEW YORK, a town in Orange County on the west bank of the Hudson River.

Some of Miki's spins are excellent. Her camel spins are beautiful esp. in the current version where she follows them with the three illusion spins. I also love the new sit spin variation she's doing this season (her invention?) where instead of a "broken leg" her leg is held straight and high to the side. It looks exceptionally difficult and well done. This competition is hardly a good place to judge the spins that involve back-bending.

I was so impressed by her determination and consistency here, but it's a little scary to see her fighting what looks like serious back pain.

It would be so good to see her in choreography by someone other than Morozov. I've liked some of his work fine, but it seems he gives Miki the same program over and over to different music. He does not seem to be a musical choreographer, and that makes it hard to tell how musical Miki herself is.

She looks elegant in her black costumes this season. Unlike some posters, I like the wild touches on the SP costume (biker girl meets Chanel).